Ray Donovan horse racing scene

[turfeyejoe]

"Ray Donovan" on Showtime is a pretty good show. But the horse racing scene in Sunday night's season finale was so ridiculous and unbelievable.
Jon Voigt goes to Santa Anita with $20,000 he got from a robbery that netted far less than he figured. He gets a tip on a horse running in a race switched from turf to dirt. The guy tells him the horse can't run a lick on turf, but he's undefeated on dirt.
So Voigt looks at the board and the horse is 8-1 with about 10 minutes to post. Hard to believe any horse unbeaten on dirt would be that high, but it gets far worse.
Voigt goes to the window and instead of calling out the horse number to the clerk, he gives the name of the horse. And his buddy, an experienced horseplayer, does the same thing and the clerk accepts the bets.
Then, after he puts $20,000 to win on the horse, the odds don't drop. They soar to 50-1. The horse breaks slowly in a six-furlong sprint, is wide the whole trip and still manages to win by daylight, giving Voigt a payoff of $1 million.
Don't these TV screenwriters employ any kind of fact checkers who could have told them none of those things would ever happen at the track?
Ruined the whole episode for me.

[GameTheory]

Originally Posted by turfeyejoe

"Ray Donovan" on Showtime is a pretty good show. But the horse racing scene in Sunday night's season finale was so ridiculous and unbelievable.
Jon Voigt goes to Santa Anita with $20,000 he got from a robbery that netted far less than he figured. He gets a tip on a horse running in a race switched from turf to dirt. The guy tells him the horse can't run a lick on turf, but he's undefeated on dirt.
So Voigt looks at the board and the horse is 8-1 with about 10 minutes to post. Hard to believe any horse unbeaten on dirt would be that high, but it gets far worse.
Voigt goes to the window and instead of calling out the horse number to the clerk, he gives the name of the horse. And his buddy, an experienced horseplayer, does the same thing and the clerk accepts the bets.
Then, after he puts $20,000 to win on the horse, the odds don't drop. They soar to 50-1. The horse breaks slowly in a six-furlong sprint, is wide the whole trip and still manages to win by daylight, giving Voigt a payoff of $1 million.
Don't these TV screenwriters employ any kind of fact checkers who could have told them none of those things would ever happen at the track?
Ruined the whole episode for me.

You missed the fact that he didn't bet on the 8-1 horse he was told to -- he switched it to "The Captain" because dead Rosanna Arquette talked to him (reincarnated as that horse he did bet on, apparently). That's what I thought happened anyway. Yes, it was all very ridiculous but so are most things on Ray Donovan....

[ten2oneormore]

^Agree....You are talking about Ray Donovan.While I do find the show entertaining , every episode in highly unbelievable.Why would the horse racing seen be any different?

[Rex Phinney]

Originally Posted by ten2oneormore

^Agree....You are talking about Ray Donovan.While I do find the show entertaining , every episode in highly unbelievable.Why would the horse racing seen be any different?

Agreed, this show seems set pretty far away from reality, I thought the horse racing scene was good, though inaccurate.

It is true he didn't bet the horse his junkie friend told him to bet, the horse he bet was "The Captain" and I think they left him asking the teller for that horse so the audience could recognize what was going on. In fact the name of the episode is "The Captain"

The horseplaying friend of his (aka his probation officer) has spent lots of scenes at the old Hollywood Park too.

I love anytime they include the ponies in TV.

[dirty moose]

Just watched the season finale, the horse racing scene is funny. Overall the episode was great.

[FlintAtTheFetlock]

Originally Posted by Rex Phinney

Agreed, this show seems set pretty far away from reality, I thought the horse racing scene was good, though inaccurate.

It is true he didn't bet the horse his junkie friend told him to bet, the horse he bet was "The Captain" and I think they left him asking the teller for that horse so the audience could recognize what was going on. In fact the name of the episode is "The Captain"

The horseplaying friend of his (aka his probation officer) has spent lots of scenes at the old Hollywood Park too.

I love anytime they include the ponies in TV.

What did I miss? The tipsters horse was the 7, Mic and the tipster both played the 7 but made the wager by horse name rather than number. The Captain was the 7. Could someone not under the influence watching this episode please settle this matter. Don't make me watch this foolishness again.

I was so bummed a great show made no effort to portray a realistic track scene. I'm still trying to figure out how a $20,000 win bet turned into $1,000,000 on an undefeated horse in a seven horse field. Ridiculous...

[ronsmac]

Originally Posted by FlintAtTheFetlock

What did I miss? The tipsters horse was the 7, Mic and the tipster both played the 7 but made the wager by horse name rather than number. The Captain was the 7. Could someone not under the influence watching this episode please settle this matter. Don't make me watch this foolishness again.

I was so bummed a great show made no effort to portray a realistic track scene. I'm still trying to figure out how a $20,000 win bet turned into $1,000,000 on an undefeated horse in a seven horse field. Ridiculous...

Television.

[magwell]

The show "jumped the shark" with this ...........

[GameTheory]

Originally Posted by FlintAtTheFetlock

What did I miss? The tipsters horse was the 7, Mic and the tipster both played the 7 but made the wager by horse name rather than number. The Captain was the 7. Could someone not under the influence watching this episode please settle this matter. Don't make me watch this foolishness again.

I was so bummed a great show made no effort to portray a realistic track scene. I'm still trying to figure out how a $20,000 win bet turned into $1,000,000 on an undefeated horse in a seven horse field. Ridiculous...

The parole officer's horse was not the #7, I don't think he gave a number. But at the paddock they looked at the #1 horse (I think) and said, "That's the one, it's 8-1 now" and then when the #7 came around in the paddock, it turned into dead Rosanna Arquette talking to Jon Voight and called him "Captain". Then Jon Voight asked his son what the name of that horse was, and his son looked at the program and said, "The Captain" and so it was destiny!

Why Wendell Pierce (the parole officer) then also bet The Captain without argument when it was some other horse that he thought was a lock was not explained, apparently just because he's a degenerate.

[Rex Phinney]

Originally Posted by FlintAtTheFetlock

What did I miss? The tipsters horse was the 7, Mic and the tipster both played the 7 but made the wager by horse name rather than number. The Captain was the 7. Could someone not under the influence watching this episode please settle this matter. Don't make me watch this foolishness again.

I was so bummed a great show made no effort to portray a realistic track scene. I'm still trying to figure out how a $20,000 win bet turned into $1,000,000 on an undefeated horse in a seven horse field. Ridiculous...

The horse Mick bet was not the undefeated on dirt horse.

When the tip was made about the horse undefeated on grass what the tipster said was the horse was a lock in the 7th, I took that to mean the 7th race, not horse #7.

The tip was "In the 7th, there is a horse who is awful on grass but has never lost on Dirt". When they arrive at the paddock the first horse they check out is the tipsters horse which is the #1, at 8-1 odds. Mick then changes his support to the #7 The Captain, who is at 50-1 odds.

[elhelmete]

And did you see during a cutaway to a pre-race shot of the infield video screen, the race was listed as 'SPECIAL WEIGHT' with the word "MAIDEN" obviously digitally taken out.

[GameTheory]

Originally Posted by elhelmete

And did you see during a cutaway to a pre-race shot of the infield video screen, the race was listed as 'SPECIAL WEIGHT' with the word "MAIDEN" obviously digitally taken out.

Aha. Yes, they were obviously using some real race and wrote around it. Since they couldn't find a super-duper come-from-behind victory but only a mid-pack runner taking over at the end, I loved the way they had them cheer during the race: "He's in the race, he's in it, oh yeah..."

[elhelmete]

Oh and this one (my wife got sick of my comments at this point): at one point Mickey says something to the effect of "they're coming around the last turn!!!" and they cut to the horses who are very obviously just leaving the chute with a good view of the break in the rail.

[dirty moose]

They made sure to leave Xpress bet in there$$$$$